George Handlery about the week that was. Falling for tested and failed ideas. Campaign promises and good government. Why Europe elected Obama. The prospects of multilateralism. A house cleaning for the GOP. Crime prevention and personal freedom. Will success bring moderation?
 
1. Obama is close to getting elected. Add this to the costs of the financial crisis. At this point one hopes that he will cling to his record. The record is adaptation to whatever serves his rise. If elected his fate and that of the country become connected, and so the hope amounts to a well wish for America. Obama has a debt to clients that depend on contributions. Once he does not need them, he will be wise to see to it that he does not appear to be the President of special interest groups. To achieve that he will have to refuse to deliver on some of the expectations connected to his election.
 
2. From over here in Europe it appears that some of Obama’s campaign has taken place abroad. This made sense: some circles in the US are impressed by acclamations from overseas. Generally, in the US the opinions of the supposedly sophisticated Europeans count. The problem is that this approval will soon ebb. If Obama acts in the national interest during the coming test-by-crisis in order to avoid the label of a shoe-licker then he will be re-cast as another American hard-liner. Europe “elected” Obama not to lead in confrontations but as a flexible politician who avoids rows by wiggling. Bush was unpopular because he did not avoid clashes. He faced them if they came his way. Obama promised to avoid them. Therefore, unless he appeases, he will be held responsible for the altercations others will initiate.
 
3. One of the unspoken promises of candidate Obama to his peacenik followers and to his fans abroad has been the end of American unilateralism. The intent: to restore American credibility and leadership. As President, Obama will be haunted by this. When he will need to lead, he will find empty spaces backing him up. This becomes understandable if we consider the past. US unilateralism was a product of the discovery during the Cold War that, for the hard going, America has few allies. So Washington had to act and if it acted, it had to act alone. The advocates of dogmatic multilateralism assume that challenges are the consequence of American assertiveness and not the other way around.
 
4. If elected, a challenge, by the way an undeserved one, faces Obama. He might, in accordance with his ideology, attempt to win Europe for consensual politics. Abandoning Republican unilateralism – allegedly the root of all problems – will demand concessions. The hope will be that with Europe enlisted, a number of looming problems can be successfully tackled. However, once it comes to joint action Washington will discover that the original enthusiasm has given way to reluctance. Its cause will be that the sacrifices implied by acting continue to be shunned. With that unilateralism will be back. Once that happens the realists can lecture Obama that the castigated unilateralism was a response to the reluctance of allies to take a stand and not a cause of their desertion.
 
5. Regardless of the election’s outcome, the GOP needs to subject itself to a remodelling. Unless it wishes to be reduced to fossil status, the party must cease to be a normal party. The misuse of power, pork and corruption must be terminated. Within the party hard-nosed supervision recommends itself. Especially so because, to prevail, the Republican Party must live up to its platform. The party rises or falls to the degree that it measures up to its claimed ethics. Prevailing depends on taking implied commitments seriously. Standing in for better and smaller government requires that those advocating it be efficient and honest. The people forgive the Democrats, but not the Republicans, for their abuses. Therefore, the GOP needs to police itself preventively. If it does not, then the voter will.
 
6. America’s problem harks back to a weakness of Americans. In their exceptionalism, they are isolated from the experiences that other societies made at other places and at other times. This follows from the island-nature of America and the limited analytical interest in others. Ergo, Americans are innocently unaware of the record left behind by solutions that are proposed to them. Therefore, as we see, tried and failed ideas, if cleverly packaged, find support.
 
7. Europe’s Social Democrats are in danger of being viewed as supporters of groups that subvert the local way of life and act as the source of economically or politically motivated violence. Bending to the wind their Swiss branch is discussing a “security program”. In the course of the debate a “young Socialist” (therefore a radical) pleaded that video cameras in public places “limit our personal freedom’. No one retorted that crime, too, limits personal freedom. Everybody’s.
 
8. After decades, Switzerland is again a target in the sights of a German party. This time the hostility comes from the left. Germany’s high taxes and declining fortunes prompt many Germans to pursue their happiness in Switzerland: German capital and persons like to move there. Right now there are 220,000 in that country of seven million. Monthly the number is growing by three 3,000. The entrants are highly qualified specialists who flee imposed equalitarianism. The right-left coalition government’s Social Democratic Minister of Finance, P. Steinbrück, is angered by the implications of this indirect vote. So in several speeches he explained the small neighbor’s success as coming from harboring crooks in a “tax oasis”. (Indeed, German taxes are about 35% of income while Switzerland takes around 15%.)
 
9. Social justice and the acceptance of other cultures are translated by those who define such terms as “tolerance of criminal behavior”.
 
10. A student researching for a women’s study program has been arrested in Iran on October 23. Such actions must be condemned and the victim deserves sympathy. Nevertheless, one is made to wonder about the detainee’s judgment. The anti-woman intolerance, as well as the arbitrariness of Iran’s rulers, are common knowledge. In this case, the risks were augmented by the US-connections of the student with Persian roots. Ignoring such dangers is only imaginable if she was not aware of them. Could it be that she came to believe the leftist-multiculturalist campus ideology that regards such facts as right wing propaganda? If so, the confrontation with realty is a shock. The arrest, however, will hardly move those to modify their views who see Iran as “good” and the US and her Zionist Entity as “bad”.
 
11. Is it reasonable to assume that Islam, as it firms its hold over the West – while denying religious freedom were it is already in power – will respond to its success by moderation?
 
12. Islam is more than simply a faith among others the way advanced societies understand the term. In these, religion operates in a separate area. It is kept apart from public affairs, the interaction between communities and of political positions. On the other hand, Islam is mostly part of the political system, in fact, it is the glue that holds it together. This means that Islam is not a private preference but a condition that is meant to have political consequences.
 
13. The crisis. Watch for the rising demand that capitalism, like God, be declared dead. Not only from the loco left is there a discernible trend to replace private enterprise by the state. Indeed, the state can save rogue/failing/stupid businesses. However, no firm can save the state that exercises control over the economy. This one-sided nexus implies that the economically dominant state, if it fails – trust me, it will – must go under. With the captain and even the rats of the ship.